Wednesday, April 27, 2011 | 8:00 pm
Chapel of the Holy Innocents | Bard College
Free and open to the public

Contemporaneous has received a vital message, encoded in music, that we feel the need to forward on to everybody we can. The only way we know to pass it on is to perform the new music by which we we gained our new awareness. Whether physical or metaphorical, the works on this evening of music written within our lifetime feature an element of movement.

Conor Brown's Weave, for two violins, is a beautifully exciting fusion of Balkan folk and metal, for which a dynamic dance duo will join us. Steve Reich's Different Trains is a deeply moving work that addresses the poignant subject of the Holocaust and ultimately makes a strong statement about the transience and inherent ebb and flow of life. This timelessly beautiful work questions the very concept of the string quartet by including sounds and spirits of survivors of the Holocaust in a meaningful meditation on the human soul.

Young, New York City based composer Juraj Kojs opens the second half with an innovative piece for brass quintet that is inspired by a traditional harvest ritual from his native Slovakia. Stacy Garrop's String Quartet No. 3, GAIA takes its inspiration and primal energies from the Greek earth goddess to form a lively and very narrative work. With original text by Bard professor Thomas Bartscherer and a newly choreographed solo dance by Marjorie Folkman, our performance will infuse Garrop's imaginative music with movement in a unique evocation of the creation of the world.

Program:

Conor Brown (b. 1988): Weave (2008)
Steve Reich (b. 1936): Different Trains (1988)

– Intermission –

Juraj Kojs (b. 1976): Trávnica I (2010) *
Stacy Garrop (b. 1969): String Quartet No. 3, GAIA (2008)

* New York premiere